Three Simple Steps to Prevent Gossip From Infiltrating Your Office
Linda Adams Shares Thoughts on Office Gossip (editor: We are grateful and pleased for Linda Adams of The Trispective Group to write a guest article on the workplace. Please enjoy) By Linda Adams Work gossip. Some of us participate in it, and most of us see it as a relatively harmless reality of working in an office. But the truth is, gossip has the power to dismantle even the best teams and keep good teams from becoming truly great. Here’s why work gossip is bad news: It allows mistrust to grow. When you start talking about coworkers instead of talking to them, you begin to see and assume the worst about their behavior. One of the hallmarks of a great team is assuming positive intent. This is the idea that we should assume that our teammates have a good reason for what they’re doing or what they’ve asked of us.When gossip spreads, your team will begin to do the complete opposite of this. Teammates will begin to assume that other individuals and groups have se...